Are Millennials Changing the Housing Market?

Millennials seem to be the hot topic in current real estate and mortgage news and it’s no wonder why. With a majority of the “Millennial” or “Gen Y” generation now migrating from their rental properties, industry pros can expect Gen Y’ers to become the largest group of home buyers within the next few years. But how will this new age group affect the housing market?

Perhaps the biggest way millennials will change the real estate game will involve communication tactics and a more tech savvy home buying process. With this age group, born between 1980-the late 90’s, soon making up the largest share of the housing market, industry pros will need to make some changes to meet their needs.

If there’s one thing that stands out and makes millennials different from other generations, it’s their reliance on technology. Not only is this generation tech reliant, they are also tech savvy, using their phones and the internet to search for everything including homes for sale. According to information from the National Association of Realtors, US News money reports that over 50% of millennials search for homes on their smart phones and 26% of that group ends up buying a home that they found online.

This means new strategies for real estate agents including less phone conversations and more texting, smart phone, and internet appeal as millennials prefer it.  Whether an agent prefers it or not, however, they will have to adjust around this generation to keep business. With millennials wanting information available at their fingertips, easy to use apps are also proving to serve as helpful in communicating with this large group of potential home buyers.

Realtors and mortgage lenders should start embracing the new generation’s ways now as their entrance into the housing market is coming quickly and in a big way. According to realtor.com, 30% of millennials plan to buy a home within the next five years and will replace baby boomers as the largest group of homebuyers. If embraced by agents, this could bring big sale opportunities with the largest generation to date just outside their door-ready to buy.